AUSTRIA: Knorr-Bremse has won a contract to fit a 23-wagon ÖBB Rail Cargo Group train with digital automatic couplers (DAC). The German supplier calls it Europe’s first commercial DAC equipment contract. The couplers are due to enter daily freight service from 2028 in an EU-funded trial.
Knorr-Bremse announced the contract from Munich on 17 September. It did not disclose the contract value or the date of signing. Rail Cargo Group, the freight arm of Austrian state operator ÖBB, has not published a statement of its own.
The train is one of seven pilot trains in the Pioneer Digital Automatic Coupling (PioDAC) project. From 2028 the two companies will test the couplers under real operating conditions, according to the release. Knorr-Bremse says the contract builds on earlier projects under Europe’s Rail, the EU’s rail research partnership.
What the order covers
The contract covers a single train. It consists of 23 freight wagons and one locomotive. Knorr-Bremse will fit the wagons with DAC systems, including electronic control units and sensors that monitor the wagons’ functions and condition digitally.
PioDAC as a whole covers about 500 DAC units on 250 freight wagons and 15 locomotives, according to the project’s own figures. Some of the seven trains will run across borders. The project’s website lists the Austrian train as a gravel service between Hegyeshalom in Hungary and Vienna, with shunting trials at the Wien Kledering hump yard.
DAC is designed to replace the manual screw coupling used on European freight wagons. The coupler also carries continuous power and data connections through the whole train. Knorr-Bremse says wagons can then be coupled and uncoupled at the push of a button or from a tablet.
Nicolas Lange, the Knorr-Bremse executive board member responsible for rail, said the two companies are among the pioneers in testing the technology. He said DAC increases safety for shunting staff and makes freight operations more efficient.
German funding call and Vienna demonstration
Germany’s transport ministry opened a roughly EUR 36m funding call for DAC pioneer trains in early September. The German programme is national and separate from PioDAC, which is co-funded by the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility.
ÖBB demonstrated DAC-equipped wagons against conventional screw couplings at the Floridsdorf freight yard in Vienna on 11 September. Rail Cargo Group began DAC train tests in Austria with a demonstration train in January. The Knorr-Bremse order is for a separate train intended for daily freight operations.
What the release leaves open
Knorr-Bremse did not disclose the number of couplers, any options for further trains or a start date within 2028. It named no further customers.
The supplier sees annual revenue potential in the hundreds of millions of euros from original equipment for train automation and digitalisation in Europe. The figure is the company’s own target.
Knorr-Bremse says DAC will be introduced to the market gradually over the next few years. The company will exhibit at InnoTrans in Berlin from 22 to 25 September.